Unless you still have a functioning PlayStation, the only way to play games from its time is via a PS3 or the PS Vita. But those who went that route and bought digital games for those two platforms have recently found their games expiring decades before they were released.
Kotaku reports that a number of people have found their classic PSOne games unplayable on their PS3 or PS Vita. In one example, Twitter user Christopher Foose found his digital copy of Chrono Cross unplayable because his purchase “expired” on December 1969. GamesHub editor Edmond Tran described a similar issue with the same game.
So did @PlayStation expire the PSOne Classics versions of #ChronoCross and #ChronoTrigger by setting the date on new downloads to 12/31/1969? This is preventing me from playing my purchased copies on Vita and PS3. @ModernVintageG @dark1x pic.twitter.com/wxRebNIZWh
— Christopher Foose (@FooseTV) April 8, 2022
While it doesn’t affect everyone who bought classic games digitally, it also doesn’t seem to only be affecting Chrono Cross. Other instances involve Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and in one case Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition for the PS3.
Here’s something shitty:
– The PSOne Classics version of Chrono Cross can’t be found on the PS Vita store anymore, only on your download list if you bought before. Runs fine though.
– It’s on the PS3 store, but trying to install and run it tells me it expired? In 1970?? wtf pic.twitter.com/o0xz96izmF
— Edmond Tran (@EdmondTran) April 4, 2022
The one common element of these games being rendered unplayable is the 1969 expiry date. The report makes mention of the Unix epoch, which refers to 1 January 1970. The date was an arbitrarily chosen date to serve as a unified start time for operating systems. It’s likely that something went wrong on PlayStation’s server side of things, rendering the affected digital games unplayable. While it’s not a widespread issue as mentioned, there is still no fix in sight for those affected.
(Source: Kotaku)
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